Re: [PATCH 2/2] x86/paravirt: add extra clobbers with ZERO_CALL_USED_REGS enabled

From: Kees Cook
Date: Sat Sep 03 2022 - 03:18:53 EST


On Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 09:37:50PM +0000, Bill Wendling wrote:
> [...]
> callq *pv_ops+536(%rip)

Do you know which pv_ops function is this? I can't figure out where
pte_offset_kernel() gets converted into a pv_ops call....

> [...]
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/paravirt_types.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/paravirt_types.h
> @@ -414,8 +414,17 @@ int paravirt_disable_iospace(void);
> "=c" (__ecx)
> #define PVOP_CALL_CLOBBERS PVOP_VCALL_CLOBBERS, "=a" (__eax)
>
> -/* void functions are still allowed [re]ax for scratch */
> +/*
> + * void functions are still allowed [re]ax for scratch.
> + *
> + * The ZERO_CALL_USED REGS feature may end up zeroing out callee-saved
> + * registers. Make sure we model this with the appropriate clobbers.
> + */
> +#ifdef CONFIG_ZERO_CALL_USED_REGS
> +#define PVOP_VCALLEE_CLOBBERS "=a" (__eax), PVOP_VCALL_CLOBBERS
> +#else
> #define PVOP_VCALLEE_CLOBBERS "=a" (__eax)
> +#endif
> #define PVOP_CALLEE_CLOBBERS PVOP_VCALLEE_CLOBBERS

I don't think this should depend on CONFIG_ZERO_CALL_USED_REGS; it should
always be present.

I've only been looking at this just now, so many I'm missing
something. The callee clobbers are for functions with return values,
yes?

For example, 32-bit has to manually deal with doing a 64-bit value return,
and even got it wrong originally, fixing it in commit 0eb592dbba40
("x86/paravirt: return full 64-bit result"), with:

-#define PVOP_VCALLEE_CLOBBERS "=a" (__eax)
+#define PVOP_VCALLEE_CLOBBERS "=a" (__eax), "=d" (__edx)

But the naming is confusing, since these aren't actually clobbers,
they're input constraints marked as clobbers (the "=" modifier).

Regardless, the note in the comments ...

...
* However, x86_64 also have to clobber all caller saved registers, which
* unfortunately, are quite a bit (r8 - r11)
...

... would indicate that ALL the function argument registers need to be
marked as clobbers (i.e. the compiler can't figure this out on its own).

I was going to say it seems like they're missing from EXTRA_CLOBBERS,
but it's not used with any of the macros using PVOP_VCALLEE_CLOBBERS,
and then I saw the weird alternatives patching that encodes the clobbers
a second time (CLBR_ANY vs CLBR_RET_REG) via:

#define _paravirt_alt(insn_string, type, clobber) \
"771:\n\t" insn_string "\n" "772:\n" \
".pushsection .parainstructions,\"a\"\n" \
_ASM_ALIGN "\n" \
_ASM_PTR " 771b\n" \
" .byte " type "\n" \
" .byte 772b-771b\n" \
" .short " clobber "\n" \
".popsection\n"

And after reading the alternatives patching code which parses this via
the following struct:

/* These all sit in the .parainstructions section to tell us what to patch. */
struct paravirt_patch_site {
u8 *instr; /* original instructions */
u8 type; /* type of this instruction */
u8 len; /* length of original instruction */
};

... I see it _doesn't use the clobbers_ at all! *head explode* I found
that removal in commit 27876f3882fd ("x86/paravirt: Remove clobbers from
struct paravirt_patch_site")

So, I guess the CLBR_* can all be entirely removed. But back to my other
train of thought...

It seems like all the input registers need to be explicitly listed in
the PVOP_VCALLEE_CLOBBERS list (as you have), but likely should be done
unconditionally and for 32-bit as well.

-Kees

(Also, please CC linux-hardening@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.)

--
Kees Cook